British teenage girl forced to marry Pakistani cousin at gunpoint, raped daily for 3 years

August 16, 2016

A 15-year-old British teen claimed she was forced to marry her cousin at gunpoint in Pakistan during a family trip – and ended up being raped every day by her new husband.

Tabassan Khan, which is not her real name, told the Sunday Express that she thought she was going to Pakistan for summer holidays with her aunt, who cared for the girl and her three brothers after her father murdered her mother when she was 12.

But the teenager from Doncaster in South Yorkshire said her holiday turned into a nightmare when she was forced at gunpoint to wed her cousin, who was six years older than her, and then held captive for three years, raping her on a daily basis.

Now 26, Khan said she was forced to marry the man for him to get a British visa.

But the teenager from Doncaster in South Yorkshire said her holiday turned into a nightmare when she was forced at gunpoint to wed her cousin, who was six years older than her, and then held captive for three years, raping her on a daily basis.

Now 26, Khan said she was forced to marry the man for him to get a British visa.

After four months, she said her uncle went to Khan’s room with a gun and gave her an ultimatum to marry her cousin. If she refused, he threatened to kill her brothers, she claimed.

“I was terrified, but felt I had no choice,” Khan said. “On my wedding night my cousin raped me. I thought my cousins were my family. It felt so wrong. He raped me every night for three years. I felt like I was a sex worker, stuck in that room. I was ashamed.”

Describing her ordeal, the forced marriage survivor endured three years of torture before being granted a divorce by a local court in Pakistan and returning to the UK in 2008.

Khan now works with the organization ‘It’s My Right: No Forced Marriages’ to spread awareness on the issue in schools and is urging the British government to protect girls who are sent abroad in similar circumstances.

The government introduced the Forced Marriage Act in 2007, but the action was later criminalized under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

“In Muslim culture, the girl is supposed to do as she is told,” Khan added. “The backward people from villages in Pakistan think they can do what they want with us. Our lives mean nothing. We are just a way to get a visa. They will do anything to get someone over here.”

Campaigners in Pakistan have long criticized the country’s track record for failing to protect women against forced marriages, many of whom are blackmailed against their will for family “honor.”

Most recently, British-born beautician Samia Shahid was reportedly strangled by her ex-husband during a trip to Pakistan for marrying a person of her choice.